It’s been fascinating to bear witness to the continuing development of US multi instrumentalist, film composer and now vocalist William Ryan Fritch. To go back to the fourth world kitchen sink experiments of his debut release on Lost Tribe, under the moniker Vieo Abiungo, you could be forgiven for thinking you were listening to an entirely different artist. Of course there’s been about 20 releases since then (you think I’m exaggerating) with each offering hints at future directions, tentative steps that have increasingly solidified over time.
It’s not just that he’s more verbal here, the vocals are mixed higher and are more confident, anchoring many of the tunes as opposed to being just another instrument in the mix. The music too is a kind of maximalist folk, soaring grandiose, somewhat magical, with wondrous suites of strings, deep reverberant percussion, and periodic instrumental explosions of blissful semi classical noise. There’s even a choir on the album standout Heavy. Fritch is wielding his homemade and self made orchestra like no one else, there are harps, guitars, strings and all manner of impossible to identify instruments that all weave in and out of each other creating a density that feels like a singular musical organism.
Yet it’s not simply technical ability, the heartfelt vulnerability of his voice and his precocious instrumental ability allows him to conjure up a wide eyed joyous innocence. It’s present even in his more melancholic moments, where you can actually feel the pleasure in his music, simply from the joy of playing.
He’s not alone of Revisionist, joined by Benoit Pioulard’s blissed out vocals on Winds, DM Smith, Obrigamibiro, and perhaps most powerfully Esme Patterson, who’s explosive yet beautiful piece Still closes the album. This level of collaboration is rare for Fritch, though to be fair last year he recorded an entire album, Death Blues with Volcano Choir’s Jon Mueller. For someone who has prided himself on being a veritable one man band this feels like a huge step, though perhaps it’s a further demonstration of not just his confidence at his musical forms, but a desire to continue to take new musical opportunities and push himself in new directions.
This is complex lyrical music. It’s bombastic without being overbearing, and there’s a vulnerability and innocence here that is nothing short of breathtaking. His ability to sew these contradictory elements together is the real key to this album. It really does feel like something definitive.
